FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT OLLI PEKKA KALLASVUO - PAGE 5

BARCELONA: Nokia, the world's largest mobile handset manufacturer, on Tuesday unveiled the N97 handset, another potential rival to Apple's iPhone, and showcased updates to its navigation and messaging services. The N97, Nokia's second touch-screen device in as many months, will begin shipping in the first half of 2009. The company's president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo described it as the most powerful mobile computer the world has ever seen. The handset is being seen as an attempt by the Finnish company to regain lost ground in the touch-screen market.

NEW DELHI: Facing wrath from customers over faulty batteries, Nokia on Thursday held Japanese battery maker Matsushita responsible for supplying the component and said it will take action after investigating the issue. "We are investigating into it. But of course they are responsible to us," Nokia's worldwide CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said when asked whether Nokia was planning to pass on the cost of replaced batteries, estimated at 46 million globally, to the Japanese company.

HELSINKI: Nokia Siemens Networks said Tuesday that its CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie will leave the company, to be replaced by insider Rajeev Suri on Oct 1. Beresford-Wylie joined Nokia Corp, the word's biggest mobile phone maker, in 1998. He has headed the Finnish-German networks joint venture since its formation in April 2007. Nokia gave no reason for his departure, but Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia CEO and chairman of the board of Nokia Siemens Networks, said he respects Beresford-Wylie's "decision to pursue opportunities in a new industry after 27 years in the telecommunications infrastructure sector.

NEW DELHI: With the market for converged devices growing, the world's largest cell phone maker, Nokia, on Wednesday said it is exploring various opportunities in this market and may enter the netbook segment. ( Watch ) "...the PC and the mobile will continue to come closer and merge. A lot of opportunity can be seen in this converged area. "We at Nokia is actively looking at this converged market...We are looking at the netbook market to see what kind of opportunity is there," Nokia Corp's global CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told reporters here.

HELSINKI: Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone maker, on Thursday lowered its outlook for the global cell phone market this year and offered a bleak forecast for 2009. "The mobile device market slowdown has continued more rapidly than previously expected," Nokia said, adding that it "now estimates that fourth quarter 2008 industry mobile device volumes will be lower than the previous estimate (it gave last month) of approximately 330 million units. " That in turn "would result in full-year 2008 industry mobile device volumes below the earlier estimate of 1.24 billion units," the company said in a statement issued at its capital markets day in New York.

BARCELONA: World's largest cellphone maker Nokia has tied up with Google to facilitate web search on its products, even as it launched models offering new services, moves that could consolidate its leadership position. The integration will begin in select markets on Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 6220 classic. Google search will be extended to additional models in the future. Ultimately, Nokia will make Google search available to its customers in over 100 countries around the world, serving mobile owners speaking more than 40 languages.

HELSINKI: The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia reported a 40-percent quarterly net profit plunge on Thursday to 227 million euros but held its earnings forecast for its key devices and services unit. ( Watch ) The Finnish company had slashed its second-quarter and full-year forecasts for its key devices and services unit last month, citing fierce competition as it faces mounting pressure from Apple and Research in Motion (RIM) in the market for multifunction telephones.

NEW DELHI: To position itself effectively in the rural market, mobile phone maker Nokia plans to offer internet based services in micro-finance, distribution, agricultural services and after sales and support services for the non-urban markets. "The company is planning to come up with internet-based services for the rural market soon," Nokia Corporation President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told reporters here. The company would also introduce these services in its mid-level mobile devices as well.

MUMBAI: At least 1.8 lakh Nokia customers in India are set to get replacements for BL-5C batteries in their mobile phones even as the Finnish giant's Indian unit has been bombarded with 30 lakh requests as on Monday, a company official said. Though no incident of overheating (the cause for Nokia's offer of replacement) has been reported in India, the brand image could have taken a beating in this market, where it enjoys 70% share. The market price of each BL-5C battery is Rs 720 and the cost at the company level is about half of it. When a shipment cost of Rs 50 is added, the total cost comes to about Rs 410 per battery replaced.

The high-profile jury members who met on Thursday evening in Mumbai to decide on the winners of the ET Awards this year came up with some interesting perspectives on how the global economy might behave in the next year or two. While all jury members expressed the optimism that the worst appeared to be over, many were cautious about making any firm prediction about the nature of the recovery. However, everyone agreed that global businesses will have a lot to learn from the current recession.